The YA Scavenger Hunt is TOMORROW!
I'm #TeamGreen!
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| Cool, right? I LOVE GREEN. |
Tomorrow I'm hiding an exclusive interview with Rives...somewhere along the hunt. Last Spring I hid an exclusive scene. Just to whet your #YASH appetite, here's that scene! It's one of the last scenes of NIL, seen through Rives's eyes.
Enjoy, and come back tomorrow! I'll have a giveaway too!:)
**originally posted as part of last Spring's #YASH*
FOR #YASH EYES ONLY! :)
As y’all may know, NIL UNLOCKED is both a
sequel and a companion novel to NIL. NIL UNLOCKED picks up on the island of Nil
where NIL leaves off, but NIL UNLOCKED is told from a new character’s point of
view: Rives, who was Thad’s Second in Command on the island. (NIL UNLOCKED is
actually a dual POV like NIL—the other POV in NIL UNLOCKED is Skye, another new
character you’ll meet soon. :D) Below is a bonus scene I wrote just for the
#YASH—it’s Thad’s last moments on Nil, as seen through Rives’s eyes. **Spoiler Alert** The following scene
contains spoilers about the ending of NIL…so if you haven’t read NIL yet, be
warned!:)
Bonus Scene
Rives
Day 241, Nearly Noon
I was the definition of a third wheel.
Not that we had a Dictionary here on Nil.
Hell, we were lucky to have food. Grammer paled in light of survival. But, if
things worked out, I’d be catching back up on my English lessons sometime in
the next 124 days.
That was a big if.
If I caught a gate, if I didn’t die first. If I
got seriously lucky.
Right now, I just hoped Thad got lucky,
but the odds weren’t good. He had exactly one noon left.
Based on the sun’s position, he actually
had less than an hour.
I’d spent the last few hours hanging
back, alternating between watching Thad’s back and trying not to watch at all. Watching
Thad and Charley this morning ranked up there with getting my finger stitched without
anesthesia as a good time. Thad’s expression was a potent mix of hurt and anger
and raw desperation that I couldn’t fix, no matter how badly I wanted to. Charley
wasn’t much better, but to give the girl credit, she had the tough act down. She didn’t show her desperation
like Thad; instead Charley strode forward with fierce hope, chin set, shoulders
back, every step showing off the Nil badass that she was. Then again, she still
had time.
It’s easy to be tough when time is still
on your side.
Time
is never on our side, I
thought. Not here.
Pay
attention, I told
myself.
It was Nil rule number one.
I glanced back at Thad. He’d stopped, and
the pain scarring his face broke something inside me. I’d almost been there,
once. Not again. Never again, definitely not here.
Charley stopped beside him and taking his
hand, she smiled.
Like their shadow, I braked too. Keeping
my distance, I looked away. Looked around.
No gate, yet.
Wrapped in themselves, the pair barely
acknowledged me, which brought strange relief. Thad and I were cool; so were
Charley and I. I’d said my goodbyes last night. At this point, I had no
interest in being drawn into a conversation where I had nothing to say—as if
I’d be able to talk with the weight of Nil on my chest. In minutes I’d lose the
best friend I had here, one way or another, and I’d had enough Nil funerals to
last a lifetime.
Dammit,
Nil. I looked around, again.
Please send a gate. Please give Thad a
ticket home.
Beneath my feet, the ground shifted, then
stilled. A small jerk, more like a wake-up call. Around me, the air went slack.
A
gate.
Exhaling the breath I’d been holding all
day, I looked back at Thad. Charley was shaking him like a rag doll and
pointing over his shoulder. Sure enough, a gate shimmered a few meters out from
the two, but Thad didn’t see it; he stood frozen, staring at Charley like a man
about to jump off a sinking ship. Then the gate winked out.
Time rushed back in, filling the vacuum
the gate left behind.
The three of us stared at the spot where
the gate vanished, like if we all stared hard enough, it would come back, like
a bad April Fool’s joke.
To my complete shock, it actually worked.
Either that, or Nil was having too much fun to quit now. A second gate flashed
a few meters past the first. Charley spotted the second gate at the same time I
did. Her face lit up like a holiday tree.
Charley shook Thad again, and then he
woke up. Or gave up. Given the next few ridiculous minutes, it was a toss-up.
“NO!” Charley’s agonized scream hung in
the still air.
Rives.
I froze, shocked by the whisper in my
head. I knew that voice; I’d ached for that voice. I’d let that voice go—or at
least tried to.
Out on the rocks, Thad laughed. He threw his
fist in the air like he’d won. His laughter echoed across the open black rock,
like Nil thought is was a joke too.
The scene slowed, a weird warp of Nil
ghosts, past and future.
Charley was gone.
Thad’s time was up.
Rives! Talla whispered again. On your left.
Stunned, I whipped around, half-expecting
to see her, knowing I wouldn’t because I
buried her. Six feet under in Nil dirt.
No Talla, but I couldn’t miss the massive
grizzly barreling our way—or the gate rising from the ground.
Thad wasn’t looking. He was shouting now,
screaming at the Nil sky, faced raised to the heavens even as he chewed out
Nil. Nil answered, shaking the ground with a vengeance.
“Thad!” I shouted. “On your left!”
He spun, saw the gate, and took off,
sprinting all out.
That day was the first time I heard
Talla’s voice, but not the last.
How had I let Nil in my head?
--end of bonus scene--
Yay! Come back tomorrow for this Fall's #YASH!
xo
Lynne
